CHAP. cur. SALIC A V CE;E. SA^LIX. 1467 



length, and '2 in. in diameter at the lower end. Such shoots make excellent 

 hoops, or rods for cratework, hurdles, and different other wickerworks, and also 

 rods for tying plants, and for fencing. In good soil, a coppice of this 

 species, will produce the greatest return in poles, hoops, and rods, every five, 

 six, seven, or eight years ; and in middling soil, where it is grown chiefly for 

 faggot-wood, it will produce the greatest return every three, four, or five 

 years. In bad soil (and on such soil only should it be grown for the leaves), 

 the plants should be cut over every year, or every two years, in the month 

 of August, and the leaves dried in the same manner as hay, and afterwards 

 stacked. We are aware that there is a great prejudice in Britain against 

 feeding cattle with the shoots of any description of ligneous plant, either in a 

 green or dried state : but let it be recollected that there is one exception in 

 the case of the furze ; and, if that is found so well worth culture as a herbage 

 plant, why may not the willow be found equally advantageous for a similar 

 purpose, under particular circumstances of soil, situation, and climate ? 



For the coarser description of basketvvork, the plants in a coppice-wood 

 may be cut over every year in the beginning of November. To preserve the 

 vigour of the stools, the shoots should not be cut over when in a green state, 

 in August, for two years in succession ; but a crop of the twigs with the 

 leaves on, cut at the end of August, should alternate with a crop of the 

 twigs without the leaves, cut in the following year in November. (See Bosc 

 Nouv. Cours. (VAgri., torn xiii. p. 440.) These rules are founded on a prin- 

 ciple laid down by Varrennes de Fenille, that the poorer the soil is, the oftener 

 the wood that grows on it ought to be cut over. 



The Culture of the Willow for Hoops. The best sorts for this purpose are 

 S. viminalis and S. caprea. It is observed by Dr. Walker, that the S. vimi- 

 nalis was cultivated for hoops, in Holland, from the first establishment of the 

 herring fishery in that country, which, according to M'Culloch, was in 1164 ; 

 or, rather, from the epoch of the Dutch learning to pickle their herrings, and 

 pack them in barrels, which they were taught to do by Beukelson, who died in 

 1397, and to whose memory Charles V. erected a magnificent tomb at Biervlier; 

 near Sluys. The Dutch boors, Dr. Walker informs us, without knowing any 

 thing of die sexes of willows, selected those plants of S. viminalis that 

 appeared to them to be of the most vigorous growth, and thus unintentionally 

 propagated only the female. As all the plants of S. viminalis grown in 

 Scotland were originally obtained from Holland, they are, consequently, 

 almost all females ; and we suppose the same thing is the case in England. 

 We mention this circumstance here, because it shows the practical use that 

 may be made of a botanical knowledge of willows ; since, by ordering the 

 female only of any given species, the planter may be sure of having all strong 

 and vigorous-growing plants. The soil, for a plantation of hoop willows, 

 ought to be good and deep, well trenched, and even manured, before planting 

 the sets. It should be in a situation naturally moist, but so thoroughly 

 drained as at no time to be stagnated by water. The drains should be at 

 regular distances, so as to throw the surface between them into beds, or compart- 

 ments ; and they may be made open, or built up on the sides, and covered 

 with flagstone. If they can be so arranged as to be filled with water at 

 pleasure, in the early part of summer, that circumstance will contribute 

 materially to the rapid growth of the plants. Hoop willows may be grown 

 along the high banks of rivers or ditches where the extremities of the roots 

 will reach the water, but where the great body of them are in the soil above 

 its level, with perfect success ; but it is in vain to plant them upon poor or 

 dry soil, or upon soil, whether rich or poor, which is continually saturated 

 with water to within a foot or two of the surface. The cuttings may be 

 planted in rows 2 ft. apart, and at 18 in. distance in the rows. The shoots pro- 

 duced should not be cut off till the second year after planting ; as by this time, 

 as Sang observes, "they will generally have formed one strong shoot, with, 

 probably, some inferior twigs. At the first cutting, care must be had not to 

 allow any part of the small twigs or side shoots to be left, but to cut them 



